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What you never knew about O.J. Simpson and where he is now

What you never knew about O.J. Simpson and where he is now

In 1995, O.J. Simpson was the most-talked-about man in America, but for all the wrong reasons. The former Heisman winner and NFL MVP was accused of murdering his ex-wife and her friend, and the ensuing trial captivated America like nothing the country had ever seen before. Even today, his twitter rants are instantly the most polarizing thing on the internet.

Here are 30 stunning facts about O.J Simpson and the man behind the “Trial of the Century.”

Nicole Brown was suspicious of O.J. Simpson years before she died

“He’s going to kill me.” Those eerily prophetic words were uttered by Nicole Brown Simpson in 1989, years before she was gruesomely murdered. O.J. Simpson had been beating his wife Nicole for years without repercussions. Nicole had called the Los Angeles police eight times, pleading with them to come to her house and save her.

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Finally, on the eighth call, they did, and that’s when a bruised, bloodied, and battered Nicole Brown told them O.J. would kill her. The warning was virtually ignored as Simpson was sentenced to only 120 hours of community service. If only the police had listened more closely to the message she was desperately trying to deliver.

O.J. didn’t want to die

Despite having a gun to his head in the infamous car chase that captivated America, O.J. wasn’t actually trying to kill himself. He was using the gun and potential suicide as leverage against the police. A key suspect in his ex-wife’s murder days before, the police did not want to let O.J. kill himself or die in a shootout, so they let O.J. — who was acting erratically — get back to his house.

Jean-Marc Giboux/Liaison

When the slow-speed chase ended, O.J. was arrested. In the Bronco, driven by O.J.’s friend A.C. Cowlings, police found almost $9,000 in cash, a fake goatee and mustache, Simpson’s passport, and the gun. That, to the detective in all of us, looks like O.J. was planning a getaway before he was spotted in the Bronco.

The Ford Bronco is worth millions

Most 1993 Ford Broncos are off the roads today. The ones that are still driving aren’t worth much, except A.C. Cowlings’ Bronco that infamously drove O.J. Simpson during their globally televised police chase. After the chase, Cowlings wanted nothing to do with the Bronco and initially agreed to sell the vehicle to a memorabilia collector, but the deal fell through at the last minute.

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Cowlings then decided to sell the car to his attorney and a few friends for $75,000. Today, the car, which Simpson’s former sports agent Mike Gilbert unsuccessfully tried to sell on Pawn Stars for $1.3 million, lies with the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

O.J. received extensive knife training

There’s a disturbing connection between the grisly slayings and the extensive knife training O.J. received while filming the television show Frogmen. Frogmen was supposed to be an NBC show about ex-Navy SEALs working in the private sector doing various missions in the same vein as The A-Team. However, due to the murder trial and controversy that followed O.J., NBC decided to nix the show completely.

@DrPopCultureBG via Twitter

During the trial, the prosecution pointed to scenes where O.J. wielded a knife and described the extensive military training he received on the set. In the end, O.J.’s involvement with Frogmen is just another fascinating twist and conspiracy in a complex case.

He made a lot of money in prison

O.J. Simpson never went to jail for the murders of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. After all, he was found not guilty. However, in a civil suit, O.J. was ordered to pay the families of the two victims a sizable chunk of change amounting to over $50 million.

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Despite spending nine years in jail for a robbery case (which we’ll address later), O.J. still managed to make a sizable income thanks to his NFL pension. While in jail, Simpson amassed over $600,000, and that money, because it’s protected by a certain law, cannot be used to pay the families the $50-or-so million he owes them.

Domino’s Pizza had record sales thanks to O.J.

In 1994, more than 95 million viewers were glued to their television sets watching O.J. Simpson (slowly) evade the police in a white Ford Bronco. The country was so enthralled with the bizarre series of events that the NBA Finals became an afterthought. So did cooking. Americans, not wanting to get hungry but also unable to leave their couches, decided to order pizza en masse.

Thankfully, Domino’s was ready to answer the call of duty. The pizza chain reported a record amount of sales that day, with numbers eclipsing what was supposed to be the biggest pizza day of the year, Super Bowl Sunday. “We benefited from the fact that it was essentially ‘dinner time’ on the West Coast and late evening on the East Coast,” Tim McIntyre of Domino’s told Business Insider.

Did his son commit the murder?

To most people, this theory lacks substance. This theory is, at best, a wild conspiracy, but because the case is still technically unsolved, it has a bit of merit. People have to listen to it, and they do. The premise is simple: O.J.’s son Jason battled depression, was suicidal, and had a turbulent relationship with his stepmom Nicole.

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Then there are the notes that Jason left in his supposed diary exclaiming that 1994 is “the year of the knife for me. I cut away my problems with a knife.” However, this evidence is flimsy and the stories about Jason haven’t been corroborated by anyone of substance.

The lead prosecutor was ruined after the verdict

Marcia Clark was a star in the making, although she didn’t choose the limelight for herself. As the lead prosecutor in the trial, Clark captivated America with her compelling arguments, poise, and passion. She even became the center of attention, albeit for different reasons, when a tabloid published topless photos of her taken on a beach.

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After the trial, a heartbroken Clark essentially stopped practicing law and bowed out of the public eye. In her book, Without a Doubt, Clark said she “felt like I’d let everyone down. The Goldmans. The Browns. My team. The country.” Today, Clark writes fiction and has published multiple novels.

Did Kim Kardashian’s father hide the murder weapon?

O.J. Simpson was good friends with Kim Kardashian’s father, the powerful attorney Robert Kardashian. The night of the murder, O.J. flew to Chicago. The next day, he was alerted to return to LA because of the tragic murder of his ex-wife. Robert Kardashian, supposedly not knowing that O.J. was returning from Chicago, went to O.J.’s house to check on his friend. At that time, O.J. just happened to pull into the driveway.

@LaurenPonzetti via Twitter

Robert, standing outside, offered to help carry some of O.J.’s bags into the house; however, he was stopped by a cop stationed by the door. With nowhere to go and a mysterious bag in hand, Robert retreated to his house, where the bag remained. Many people surmise the murder weapon was stashed in the bag and that O.J. used Robert as a means to dispose of it. To date, the murder weapon has yet to be found.

Is Khloe Kardashian O.J.’s daughter?

Again, this is just a theory, but depending on who you ask, one with a lot of traction. The theory is simple: Kris Jenner has admitted to having an affair around the time of Khloe’s conception. And the man she could have had that affair with may have been O.J. himself.

ANDREAS BRANCH/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

On both sides of the debate, there are quotes, statements, and allegations to back up or deny the theory, but one look at Khloe is rather telling — she doesn’t look that similar to her sisters. To further muddy the waters, Robert’s ex-wife Jan Ashley told Star Magazine that “Khloe is not his kid. He told me that after we got married. Robert just kind of looked at me and said it like it was a matter of fact.”

He was married before Nicole

Although O.J.’s marriage to Nicole may have been his most famous — for all the wrong reasons — it wasn’t his first. At 19 years old, O.J. married his high school sweetheart Marguerite L. Whitley. However, in 1979, the relationship soured and the couple divorced. Regarding the relationship, O.J. explained that “the price of fame was our biggest problem.”

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He continued, “My wife is a private person, yet we can’t walk down the street without causing a commotion.” After their divorce, Marguerite remarried twice. One of her boldest claims was that O.J. never laid a hand on her, which is in stark contrast to the abuse Nicole Brown Simpson suffered.

O.J. had his own prank show

Prior to the murder trial, O.J. Simpson had been a fairly successful actor, starring in numerous television shows and movies. Decades after the double murder, O.J. made his foray back into television by starring in the pay-per-view prank TV show, Juiced. The show was a bizarre attempt at staying relevant and generating some income, and it failed miserably.

@theofficialword via Twitter

The hour-long special sold approximately 100 DVDs. The premise of the show was O.J. going around pranking people in a variety of capacities. The reactions of people getting pranked ranged from spooked to excited to see the former star. After the prank was pulled, O.J. would excitedly exclaim that they had been “Juiced!” in reference to his nickname.

Were Colombian drug lords involved in the murder?

We’re back with the conspiracies. Although this one was shot down in court very quickly by Judge Lance Ito, the assertion that Colombian drug lords killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman still sticks around to this day. Essentially, Simpson’s lawyer Johnnie Cochran floated the idea that Nicole and her good friend Faye Resnick, both of whom used cocaine regularly, owed money to Colombian drug dealers whom they bought their drugs from.

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The borrowed money, Cochran stated, was to be used to open up a Starbucks in the area. When the drug lords couldn’t find Resnick, they stalked Nicole and murdered her and her friend Ronald to send a pretty clear message.

O.J. spent nine years in prison

After getting off scot-free, O.J. somehow managed to squander his freedom. In September of 2007, Simpson and some goons robbed a sports memorabilia dealer at gunpoint at the Palace Station hotel in Las Vegas. O.J.’s excuse for it? It was his memorabilia that was stolen from him. Sound logic.

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Anyhow, Simpson was found guilty of a slew of charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery. On Dec. 5, 2008, Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison with eligibility for parole after nine years. And, after nine years of mostly good behavior in prison, a “reformed” Simpson was released back into the free world.

He published a book about how he would commit the murders

One definitive step to becoming the biggest a-hole in the world: Write a book called If I Did It. Yes, in 2007, Simpson and ghostwriter Pablo Fenjves collaborated on a project that hypothesized how O.J. would have done it if he actually murdered those two people. Needless to say, the project was not without controversy. Numerous petitions were signed to bar the book’s release.

@grain_death via Twitter

Bookstore patrons were outraged that a book essentially admitting to murder would be on the shelves. But O.J. managed to rationalize writing it. He was paid $600,000 for it, and in the words of his ghostwriter Pablo, he said, “Everybody thinks I’m a murderer anyway. They’re not going to change their mind just because of a book.”

The economy tanked after the verdict

The roughly 100 million Americans that tuned into the O.J. Simpson verdict severely impacted the economy. You already heard how much Domino’s Pizza was impacted by the car chase, and the verdict was like the car chase on steroids. It was on the juice, if you will. According to a Business Insider article, as America tuned in to the verdict, productivity in the workplace plummeted, costing about half a billion dollars in lost output.

Evan Agostini/Liaison

Long-distance calls — yes that was still a thing — dropped by a staggering 58%, and trading on the New York Stock Exchange fell by 41%. Water usage also fell sharply as people preferred to hold it in rather than miss a minute of the verdict.

O.J. threw a post-verdict party

Slimy wouldn’t begin to describe O.J.’s actions after the shocking verdict was announced. After being proven not guilty, O.J and his crew decided to throw a massive house party at his Rockingham mansion. Simpson’s mother arrived in a Rolls-Royce. Behind her was a cavalcade of limousines carrying family, friends, and his legal team.

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Swaths of protesters carrying signs like, “Welcome to Brentwood. Home of the Brentwood Butcher,” could not put a damper on the party. Over 40 crates of champagne arrived and the crowds swelled to levels where the LAPD had to be called in to control them.

A serial killer confessed to the crimes

Glen Rogers, a serial killer who murdered at least five women in states ranging from coast to coast, confessed to the murders of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown. The theory goes like this: Glen Rogers was working in LA doing odd jobs when O.J. contracted him to do some work on his mansion.

@iamsmilie via Twitter

The two built up some rapport that led O.J. to ask Rogers to steal a set of diamond earrings from Nicole. Should things get out of hand, Rogers was given the green light to kill her. Rogers’ brother Clay told CNN that, “I’m absolutely certain that my brother Glen killed Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.”

O.J. fought a white supremacist in jail

Prison is a volatile place full of loose cannons. And among the things not to do in prison should be angering a 6-foot, 250-pound white supremacist. Yet, that is exactly what O.J. did at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada. A 67-year-old O.J. casually cut in line in front of 51-year-old Travis Waugh, a notorious prison thug and white supremacist. Simpson’s actions, to say the least, rubbed Waugh the wrong way.

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The two got into a shoving match where O.J. found himself pinned against the wall. After some trash-talking and spitting in each other’s faces, the scuffle ended, but not without Waugh issuing Simpson a death threat that apparently rattled the former football star to his core.

What O.J. whispered to his lawyer after the verdict

Moments after the trial of the century concluded, O.J. was seen whispering something in Robert Shapiro’s ear. The words uttered to his superstar lawyer were a mystery that left people wondering what it was that O.J. said. After years of keeping it a secret, Shapiro, in 2016, told Fox News that O.J whispered, “You had told me this would be the result from the beginning. You were right.” There it is. Nothing too juicy or exciting.

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Shapiro then concluded his Fox interview with some cryptic words. “Our system of justice is one that’s balanced,” he said. “We hope and pray that innocent people are never convicted. And the price we pay is that sometimes guilty people can and do go free.”

O.J. wanted to do his first post-trial interview via pay-per-view

Money over everything, at least if you’re O.J. Simpson. After the trial concluded, O.J. Simpson wasted no time in trying to capitalize on the thrilling case. His first step toward profiting off the heartbreak was trying to set up a pay-per-view interview that was supposed to net him millions and millions of dollars.

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However, cable companies received severe backlash for even showing interest in the PPV tell-all interview, and the idea was promptly canceled. O.J. then decided to accept a full interview with BET, where he successfully evaded the tough questions by telling listeners to buy his $29 prerecorded tape that includes all the juicy details proving him innocent …

What he said to Nicole’s corpse

OK, so Nicole Brown’s funeral was a closed-casket funeral, meaning O.J. Simpson couldn’t say anything or do anything to Nicole. However, prior to the funeral, there was an open-casket private viewing for Nicole where people said their final goodbyes.

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It was during that time that, according to Nicole’s mother Juditha Brown, O.J. whispered to Nicole that he was “so sorry, Nic. I’m so sorry,” before kissing her on the lips. At the funeral, O.J. was reportedly angry with Nicole for going out on bad terms — they were constantly fighting prior to her death. Talk about the understatement of the century.

His house was redecorated during the trial

Prior to the jury visiting O.J.’s house, Simpson’s lawyer Johnnie Cochran decided to pull a power move and switched from attorney to interior designer. Simpson’s walls were covered with photos of white women, some of them nude. Cochran, believing Simpson’s interior design wouldn’t resonate with the mostly black jury, decided to remove Simpson’s paintings and art and replace it with his own.

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Cochran’s collection for O.J. consisted of African art and statues and portraits of O.J. alongside his family. Cochran even lent a Norman Rockwell print from his office that depicted an African-American girl surrounded by federal agents to show that O.J. was sympathetic to social justice causes.

O.J. said he was too weak to fight Ron Goldman

O.J.’s defense team conjured every reason under the sun as to why he couldn’t be the murderer. One of the more outlandish ones was that the former NFL player was too weak to kill. They claimed that Simpson was severely limited by arthritis from his football-playing days. OK, that may have been a decent excuse had O.J. not released an exercise videotape two weeks before the murders.

Lee Celano/WireImage

So which one is it? Was O.J in fact too weak to move around and kill two people, or was he fully able, as documented by his exercise video where he exclaimed how the workouts will strengthen his back and help his golf game?

He had a glass of juice before turning himself in

Following O.J.’s improbably slow police “chase” down the California interstate, LA police allowed Simpson to ponder his decisions in the Ford Bronco that sat in the driveway of his Brentwood mansion. After about an hour in the Bronco, police allowed Simpson to move into his house to collect himself before turning himself in.

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For about an hour, O.J. Simpson collected himself in the privacy of his home, speaking with his mother and sipping on some orange juice. After calmly sipping his juice, O.J. submitted himself to the police and was transported in a motorcade to prison. And that’s when the trial of the century truly began.

He was the only player to rush for 2,000 yards during the 14-game season

From 1961 through 1977, the NFL schedule consisted of 14 regular-season games. Thankfully, the NFL found their senses and gave us fans more football by expanding the regular season to 16 games. Well, in 1973, O.J. Simpson shocked the (football) world by rushing for 2,003 yards in just 14 games.

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It was the first time the NFL had seen a 2,000-yard rusher. Since O.J.’s feat, only six other running backs have eclipsed the 2000-yard mark, all of them doing so in a 16-game season. “The Juice” really was on the loose, and during that season, there was no one stopping him.

After football, he began acting

O.J. Simpson had an 11-year NFL career that saw him make five Pro Bowls, lead the league in rushing four times, and win the NFL MVP (1973). He was a force to be reckoned with and a prototype for the modern-day NFL running back. At the college level, O.J. dominated the competition and won the 1968 Heisman Trophy.

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In 1983, the Juice was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and two years later, the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Following football, Simpson began a successful career in acting and broadcasting. In 2006, O.J. Simpson starred in the disastrous Juiced.

His father was a drag queen

O.J.’s relationship with his dad was complicated and fractured. His father, James, was a closeted homosexual who eventually came out, something that appeared to shake O.J. to his core. Later in life, O.J. had outbursts directed at gay males. In 1985, Simpson’s father died of AIDS. Prior to his death, Simpson’s dad was a relatively well-known drag queen in San Francisco.

@RafaelPoulain via Twitter

Although the two had almost no relationship growing up, they did manage to build a tenuous one later in life. O.J.’s dad was present at his Hall of Fame induction in 1985. O.J.’s mother, Eunice, passed away in 2001 at the age of 80.

Simpson demanded the largest rookie contract ever

When O.J. was drafted back in 1969 with the first overall pick, he wanted to get paid like a star. After all, he had acting gigs and endorsements lined up from Buffalo to LA, and it was apparent O.J. knew his value. Simpson asked the Bills for a $650,000 contract over five years, plus another $500,000 to invest.

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Bills owner Ralph Wilson was adamant that that was too much and didn’t budge, at least initially. Finally, after realizing the transcendental talent that O.J. was, Wilson budged and gave O.J. exactly what he wanted. Thus, O.J. became a Bill rather than sitting out the entire year.

What his kids are up to

O.J. has four kids, two from his first marriage and two from his second with Nicole. His eldest kids were adults at the trial in 1995 and adamantly supported their father. The younger two kids live more private lives in Florida. Simpson’s daughter with Nicole, Sydney, graduated from Boston University and works in real estate in Florida.

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Their son, Justin, is also a successful real estate agent in South Florida. Lastly, O.J.’s fifth kid, a daughter named Aaren, tragically drowned in a pool at 2 years old. O.J.’s son from his first marriage, Jason, is a key figure in numerous conspiracies surrounding the double murder.

OJ loves making his opinions known on Twitter

Following the early season drama in the NFL regarding Antonio Brown and the Raiders, OJ posted a video rant on Twitter pleading for Antonio to drop the shenanigans and go back to being a team player. Clearly, Antonio didn’t listen to OJ as his continuous social media presence soon after resulted in his release from the team.

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Antonio would then be picked up by the New England Patriots, only to be hit by another stint of misfortune as he was accused of sexual misconduct by a former trainer. OJ once again took to twitter saying, he was accused, not charged. So it’s clear that OJ is hopeful that the whole thing will blow over for AB.